What is it about?
'Here' is a poem that takes the reader on a physical and emotional journey. It depicts Larkin (or Larkin's persona) travelling back to Hull via train and documents the sights that he sees and his feelings towards them as he goes. Larkin's distaste for urbanisation is evident throughout the poem although he describes the pastural setting upon the outskirts of Hull in a positive light. As the poem beings, Larkin is travelling towards Hull, 'swerving through fields too thin and thistled to be called meadows'. The second stanza focuses upon the town centre of Hull and Larkin begins to reveal his distaste for the heavy industrial areas of the place. He hints towards Hull being a claustrophobic space where 'cranes cluster beside grain-scattered streets [and] barge-crowded water'. However, he does mention the traditional 'domes and statues' of the town, revealing that he likes culture but not modernisation. By the third stanza, we are drawn to the underbelly of Hull 'where only salesmen and relations come'. Larkin describes the people who live here as an urban yet simple cut-price crowd', revealing that he simply thinks they're cheap and dim. However, as we once again return to the countryside in readiness for the final stanza, the pace quickens: 'fast-shadowed wheat-fields, running high as hedges'. Larkin concludes his poem with an image of the beach - 'ends the land suddenly beyond a beach of shapes and shingle.'
What are the deeper meanings?
Themes of materialism are present throughout and Larkin focuses in on the people of Hull's town centre and how they're obsessed with upward mobility - 'cheap suits, red kitchen-ware, sharp shoes, iced lollies, electric mixers, toasters, washers, driers' - he reels off a list of material goods that the 'residents from raw estates' strive to obtain in order to conform to the ever-growing industrial scene of the town. His attitudes towards the working-class come across as snobbish and degrading; he depicts the 'residents from raw estates... stealing flat-faced trolleys', revealing his true thoughts towards those who he believes to be below him economically. Their desires are mindless to Larkin and purely materialistic. All they want to do is spend money. However, alongside themes and hints towards his distaste of materialism, Larkin reflects upon loneliness frequently, particularly towards the end of the poem. His manifesto seems to outline that loneliness allows you a chance to reflect. Being alone is not a bad thing; he simply believes that other people make you forget to think. He reels off a list of places within the town and purposely chooses to mention 'the slave museum' perhaps metaphorically saying that the people of Hull are enslaved to their material goods.
What poetic devices are used?
The entire first stanza revolves around natural imagery yet the repetition of the word 'swerving' three times creates a slow, monotonous and dull tone in order to reflect the mundane activity of travelling by train. The river is personified, giving the impression that Larkin is a part of the river's movement and it is this very flow that is magnetically pulling him towards Hull. Larkin concludes his poem by describing the coast. This clears the urbanisation of the city away and provides us with the first positive image we've had since the poem began. 'Here silence stands like heat', Larkin says, hinting that here it is quiet and still and far removed from the bustle of the town centre. 'Neglected waters quicken [and] luminously-peopled air ascends', giving the impression that here, in the countryside, nature can be reborn and grows and develops - it is able to breathe again.
